Jan 10, Kathmandu- Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chairman and former Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, who was released on bail on Thursday in the case of misappropriation of savings of Pokhara's Suryadarshan Cooperative, will also appear in the Kathmandu District Court in Kathmandu today in a case related to cooperatives, informed Manish Jha, acting spokesperson of the Rastriya Swatantra Party.

After being released from the prison, the police conducted a medical examination at the Fishtail Hospital in Pokhara and handed Lamichhane over to his family. As per the court order, he was released from the custody of the Kaski police after posting a bail of Rs 6.5 million. Along with him, six other defendants in the case were released after posting bail. 

Lamichhane, Chhabilal Joshi, Leela Pachai, Ram Bahadur Khanal, Krishna Bahadur Gurung and Aarti Gurung were released after paying bail, informed Shrestedar Rajan Khanal of the Kaski District Court. 

A bench of Justice Nitij Rai on Thursday ordered the release of Chairman Lamichhane on bail of Rs 6.5 million, Chhabilal Joshi on bail of Rs 8.8 million, Leela Pachai on bail of Rs 3.7 million, Meena Gurung on bail of Rs 5 million, Ram Bahadur Khanal on bail of Rs 1.5 million, Aarti Gurung on bail of Rs 5 million and Krishna Bahadur Gurung on bail of Rs 1 million. The court said that the defendant Leela Pachai is in custody after failing to pay the bail amount today.

The order to release the defendants on bail came after ten days of protracted arguments in the court. On Paush 20, the District Attorney's Office had filed a case against 44 people, including Lamichhane, on charges of embezzling funds from the cooperative. The Attorney's Office has so far filed cases against 63 people in the District Court, Kaski, in the Suryadarshan Cooperative fraud case. Shrestedar Khanal said that further investigation will be conducted into the cases of the defendants who were released on bail.